A large volume of potato chips are prepared by batch cooking. The resulting chips have a distinctive "bite" or hardness which is one factor which has led to the high market acceptance of this batch cooked product even in competition with potato chips produced in continuous processes.
The typical batch cooker for potato chips includes an open top vat containing a volume of cooking oil, the vat being heated from below and is thus direct fired with the heat being applied to the bottom of the vat. Alternatively, the cooking oil may be heated remotely in a heat exchanger coupled to the cooking vat, or heated by a series of fuel fired immersion burners firing into one or more tubes immersed in the cooking oil. The sliced potatoes may be deposited in the cooking vat from either a moving conveyor belt or from an overhead located potato slicer. The operator or attendant however must observe that the slices do not congregate into clumps when first immersed into the cooking oil which is an undesirable condition leading to a substantial amount of rejected product for failure to meet quality control standards.
During the typical cooking cycle, the attendant, using a wooden rake, stands over the vat and agitates the cooking slices in a personalized stirring pattern so as to keep the slices in movement, to prevent clumping, until full cooking has been achieved. The cooking end point could be determined by visual inspection by the attendant or by a determination that the cooking oil has reached a preselected end temperature or that a time temperature interval has been calculated and a signal given so that the attendant may rake the cooked slices to one end of the vat for removal by a takeout conveyor. Once the slices have been removed from the vat, the attendant can give his attention to an adjacent cooking vat because customarily one attendant or operator serves to keep two cooking vats in production. Thus, while waiting for one batch to come up to the desired cooking temperature, attention could be given to the cooking operation in an adjacent vat which requires the raking of the slices to avoid clumping or agglomeration and to generally oversee the cooking operation.
Cooking potato chips as described above exposes the operator or attendant to an unpleasant work environment of heat and oil fumes. The batch cook process gives a wide variation in product quality and is incapable of achieving good product uniformity such as found in the continuous potato chip processes. These are known shortcomings to the batch cook procedure.